Hunting for Primary’s Dollar Impact
Concord — If there’s any place where spending attributable to the presidential primary will show up, it’s in the revenue reports used to calculate the state’s meals and rooms tax. The Monitor checked the revenue reported by hotels, motels and eateries throughout Merrimack County for the months surrounding the 2012 and 2008 primaries. Not enough data is available yet to analyze this year’s primary, as you might expect. Specifically,...
U.S. Stocks Halt Slide Amid Oil Rally
New York — U.S. stocks halted a five-day slide that dragged global equities into a bear market, as oil rebounded with its best day in seven years and bank shares jumped the most since 2011. Treasuries had the biggest drop of the year. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index’s rally trimmed its loss for the week to less than 1 percent amid data showing higher retail sales. Lenders rallied 4 percent after JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Jamie...
Social Security Q&A: Do I Have to Wait a Year to Apply for Disability?
Question: I heard that my disability must be expected to last at least one year to qualify for Social Security disability benefits. Does this mean I have to wait until I’ve been disabled an entire year before applying for disability? Answer: No. If you believe your disability will last a year or longer, apply for disability benefits as soon as you become disabled. Processing your application can take an average of three to five...
Streaming TV Costs a Lot Less Than Cable, but Choosing a Service Has Proven Frustrating
Like millions of other consumers, Evan Hartstein was fed up with pay TV. The 40-year-old father of two was paying nearly $250 a month for a bundle of phone, high-speed Internet and hundreds of cable channels that he and his family barely watched. So Hartstein and his wife recently ditched their standard cable TV subscription and instead signed up for Sling TV, Netflix and a few other streaming services. Their monthly bill was cut in...
Obama Preps Final State Of the Union
Washington — President Obama will deliver his final State of the Union address on Tuesday night to a nation whose economy is far sturdier than it was when he took office in 2009. Yet as 2016 begins, the stout job market is accompanied by tepid economic growth and stubbornly flat wages. More broadly, two things are on the rise, to the president’s dismay: global temperatures and Americans’ concerns about terrorism. A snapshot of the...
